Dead Rising: Case Gamma
by Hulkfan96
Summary: When Bruce Banner ends up in Willamette, Colorado following an accident in his lab, he ends up a survivor of a zombie epidemic, trapped in a mall.
1. When Zombies Attack

_A/N: I'll be using Doc Green Hulk for this crossover._

* * *

[**September 12, 2006- 10:21 AM**]

-**Willamette, Colorado**-

**Bus Stop**

As a bus pulls over to a bus stop, Bruce Banner steps out, arriving in the small and peaceful town of Willamette, Colorado. Population, 53,594. Bruce smiles to himself as he looks around at the many buildings; hopeful to get a fresh start after ending up in this universe due to an accident in his lab three months ago.

* * *

-**A Week Ago**-

Bruce stands in his lab, working on a strange experiment of some kind when he stupidly makes a slight miscalculation that he didn't expect literally blows up in his face. A flash of light blinds Bruce as he passes out. Later on, he arrives in this new universe, appearing behind a convenience store in the dead of night. Since the store was closed, Bruce had no trouble breaking in and taking some clothes and a backpack, as well as some money from a register. Luckily for him, it didn't appear that any of the villains he had to deal with existed here, and the military had no history with him, so he had no reason to remain hidden. Bruce was shocked at his current predicament, but was at the same time relieved; happy that no other superhumans existed in this strange and similar, but somewhat different universe. Well, except him at the moment.

* * *

-**Present Time**-

**The Next Day**

Bruce keeps smiling to himself as he enters a nearby diner to get something to eat. He sits at a booth and orders up some eggs and bacon as he patiently waits for his meal. After a few minutes, his breakfast arrives. As he eats his breakfast, he sees a TV playing a news report. Evidently, a mysterious illness has been spreading around Willamette for quite some time, and it's been making people sick and unusually aggressive. "Gosh...this looks serious. I hope I'm not the cause of it..." Bruce says to himself as he continues eating, wondering if his arrival in Willamette is the cause of this.

* * *

-**Later**-

After finishing his breakfast and paying for it, Bruce exits the diner and decides to explore the small town for a bit more. After thirty minutes of pretty uneventful exploring, he decides to head to the Willamette Mall, hearing from the locals that it's the only thing in town worth spending any time on, and Bruce is hoping that he'll be able to find work there so that he'll be able to find a place to live.

* * *

-**Willamette Mall**-

Bruce enters the massive mall and checks out various stores located within, though he couldn't gain access of the North Plaza due to a massive gate splitting it from the rest of the mall, with a sign stating it was 'under construction'. However, Bruce then notices a bookstore with a sign that says, "Everyone Luvs Books". Seeing as how much of a bookworm he was, Bruce smiles as he enters the bookstore and begins to read numerous books. As he continues to read more and more books, he accidentally bumps into an elderly man with a cane, who was carrying some books to the front desk to buy, making both men drop the books they were holding.

"Oh! I am so, so sorry, sir!" Bruce says as he helps the old man pick up the books he was carrying.

"What is the matter with you?!" The old man says in a burst of anger. "Do you possess the inability to watch what you're doing, you moron?!"

"Whoa! Sir, I'm sorry!" Bruce says, doing his best to not Hulk out. If he did, the old man would probably die of a heart attack upon first glance. Before the situation could get any worse, a tall, imposing African-American man wearing a yellow dress shirt and beige-colored pants approaches, accompanied by a attractive, busty woman with short blonde hair and glasses as well as businesswoman attire. These two seemed very confidant, with an air of professionalism.

"Sir, calm down. Why don't you come with me and take a deep breath or two?" The African-American man says as he begins to lead the elderly man out of the bookstore before looking at Bruce. "Sorry for the slight inconvenience, sir. Have a nice day." He says politely as he and the old man walk away from Bruce, unknowingly stopping Hulk from emerging. Bruce takes a deep breath, relieved that was over.

The busty woman walks over to Bruce. "Sorry about that."

Bruce sighs as he nods his head in response to her words. "It's okay. What was that old man's problem anyway?"

The woman shrugs her shoulders. "It's...complicated. I'm Jessica McCarney. But you can just call me Jessie." She says as she holds her hand out to Bruce.

Bruce raises an eyebrow at her secrecy, but smiles as he shakes her hand. "Bruce. Bruce Banner. It's a pleasure to meet you, Jessie."

Jessie smiles back at the handsome man. "Likewise. So, are you a local?"

The question caught Bruce by surprise, but he was quick to answer. "N-No, actually. I'm not. I just moved here. I'm hoping for a fresh start here, in fact."

"Oh. Well...how's that working out for-" Jessie starts to ask, only for the African-American man to call for her.

"Jessie! Let's go." The colored man says, prompting the busty beauty to nod her head.

"Coming. Sorry, Bruce. I gotta go. But...I'll see you around..." She says with a little flirt in her voice as she winks at Bruce before walking away, though Bruce notices her swaying her wide hips as she walks off, no doubt in an attempt to tease or seduce him. It _definitely_ worked.

Bruce blushes brightly as he watches Jessie and the man depart. "Wow...she's beautiful...and _really_ sexy..." He says to himself as he wanders throughout the mall, this time heading for the Wonderland Plaza, with Jessie still on his mind.

* * *

-**Wonderland Plaza**-

Bruce enters the new area, which was themed like a child's fantasy playground, with multi-colored areas, statues of anthropomorphic animals, and a shuttle ride that carries occupants all over the plaza. As Bruce wanders around, he stops to watch a goofy clown interacting with children laughing goofily as he makes balloon animals for them. Bruce merely chuckles at this before moving on.

"Come on...there's gotta be at least one place in this mall that's offering employment..." Bruce mutters, annoyed that he couldn't find employment anywhere in this massive mall. He just couldn't believe that as large as this mall was, there wasn't a _single place_ that was offering work. He then sighs and turns around to leave, only to hear a loud, heated argument that seemed to be coming from a nearby clothing store. While Bruce headed towards there, he secretly hoped that he'd be able to resolve this without Hulking out. He enters the clothing store, coming across a young woman being harassed by a overweight woman dressed as a security guard. "Um, ma'am? Excuse me, but what seems to be the problem?"

Hearing Bruce, the large woman focuses on the man and glares at him, clearly not interested in what he had to say about what she was doing to the smaller woman. "This little twat tried to steal several pairs of bras and underwear from the women's department! I'm taking her to her holding cell!" The security guard says angrily.

"For the last time, I didn't steal them; I already bought these items, but I lost my receipt!" The frightened woman says, desperately wanting to be let go.

"Shut up, you little shit!" The officer shouts as she raises her hand to strike the smaller woman. Having enough of this, Bruce walks over and grabs the officer by the arm and stops her, much to the shock of the two females.

"That is enough!" Bruce says loudly, utilizing a small amount of his Hulk strength to stop the guard's attack. "I will gladly pay for the woman's items...but only if you let her go. _Now_." He says sternly.

The large woman glares at Bruce furiously in an attempt to scare him off, but he didn't even budge. Bruce has dealt with large people like this before, such as the Mad Titan Thanos and Galactus, the Devourer of Worlds. This overweight bully was nothing compared to those super villains he dealt with on his Earth dimension. Happy that Bruce is defending her, the smaller woman looked at him and smiles, a thankful expression on her face.

"Listen here, you little shit." The large woman says to Bruce, irritated by his inability to mind his own business. Bruce, however, continues to stand his ground. "You are interfering in official police business-"

"Shut up, fatso!" Bruce rudely interrupts. "This is nothing to get physical about. So how about this: You let the nice woman go, I'll let go of your arm...and we go our separate ways?"

The overweight woman scowls at Bruce, but starts to consider his offer as he continues to hold her arm with an amazing amount of strength, especially since Bruce was smaller than her. "Grrr...fine!" She then releases the smaller woman and Bruce releases his vice-like grip on the large woman's arm.

"Get going." Bruce says to the security guard, who scowls at him once more as she storms off in a huff.

"Oh, thank you! Thank you so much!" The woman says with gratitude as she hugs Bruce, happy to be free.

"It's no problem, miss." Bruce says in a gentlemanly way. After she thanks him some more and walks off, Bruce sighs to himself and begins to walk away as well, only to hear a man screaming as another man pushes him down and attacks him. Bruce runs over as fast as he can and pulls the attacker off, only to be horrified by his appearance. He had milky white eyes, his teeth were yellow, his flesh seemed to be rotting at an unusually fast rate, and he was growling gutturally. As Bruce was pulling the strange 'man' off he had a chunk of his victims' throat in his mouth, spraying blood all over the mall's floor. This act of cannibalistic violence makes Bruce sick to his stomach as he almost vomits, but he quickly regains his composure. The attacker then grabs at Bruce in an attempt to attack him, but Bruce taps into his Hulk strength like before and easily throws him several meters away. After he does this, several more people can be heard screaming in terror.

Bruce quickly spins around, spotting a horde of people with similar physical changes to the 'man' from earlier. Some had gaping bite wounds on their necks, chests, arms, legs, and even their faces, while some were missing entire limbs and appendages. Bruce charges at the group, punching and throwing several of them away using a small fraction of his Hulk strength, much to the shock of many other people that were unharmed. However, as strong as Bruce was, he saw that the horde was growing in numbers within seconds, so he grabs a discarded baseball bat, using it to bash in several of the attackers' heads, spraying even more blood and brain matter on the floor as he makes it to some stairs. "Everyone! Quick! Get to the Entrance Plaza! Head upstairs! Move!" Bruce shouts, alternating between shouting orders to the unmarked people and killing the attackers with his baseball bat. After several people get upstairs, Bruce follows, looking back to see the entire Entrance Plaza, which was practically flooding with these strange creatures...


	2. Surviving

Bruce continues to fight off the zombies, using the baseball bat he found as well as his free hand to bash as many zombies as he can as he leads a small group of survivors to safety. After a few more swings, the bat breaks apart, having been used on too many zombies. Bruce looks around and picks up a nearby trashcan and later on, a big wooden bench, using his enhanced strength to easily swing and toss them at numerous zombies that were dumb enough to attack him.

* * *

-**Later**-

After fighting off more than a dozen hordes of zombies, Bruce and the group he saved make it to the Entrance Plaza, greatly relieved to see zero signs of zombies in the area, but that relief quickly turns to terror upon seeing a never ending hired of zombies outside the mall, banging on the doors. Not wasting any time, Bruce and a few of the men from the group seal off the Entrance Plaza from the rest of the mall by closing the big metal security gates. As they do that, a few of the other survivors in the group try to use their cellphones to call their friends and family, but they weren't getting a signal; all cell services in Willamette were down.

"Listen up!" A balding, older man in a white dress shirt and brown pants says loudly, getting the attention of Bruce and the other survivors. "My name is Ryan LaRosa, and I believe that because of those freaks out there, we're gonna be stuck in the mall for a while until the National Guard can get here. I suggest we make a barricade in front of the entrance doors to keep more of those zombies from getting in." Ryan says as he and several of the male survivors start constructing the barricade. Everyone, Bruce included, notice that one store in particular was closed, "Everyone Luvs Books," a security gate blocking the doorway; it had apparently been like that before anyone got to the mall.

Bruce starts to walk around and check on the survivors, such as a worriesome old woman and her pet poodle, making sure that nobody had been bitten by the zombies. "_Maybe I spoke too soon about nothing being wrong with this universe_..." Bruce thinks to himself.

* * *

-**Later**-

Some time later, Ryan and some of the men finish constructing the barricade at the front door. Ryan walks over to Bruce, holding his hand out. "Thanks for all the help." Ryan says.

Bruce nods as he shakes Ryan's hand. "No problem. I just couldn't let anyone get hurt on my watch."

Ryan nods at that before asking, "How did you do all that? I've seen some pretty strong guys in my day, but none that could do what you did back there. What's your secret?" He asks, curious as to how Bruce is so strong.

Sheepishly, Bruce replies with, "Push ups. A whole lot of push ups."

Ryan laughs as one of the mall's security guards, Gordon, walks up to Ryan, since he's the group's unofficial leader. "Well, the barricade is finished, but we don't have any food." Gordon tells Ryan. "We need to send one or two people to scavenge some before everybody starts getting restless."

Hearing this, Bruce speaks up, volunteering for the task, much to everyone's surprise. "I'll go." He says.

"You sure you're up for the task?" Ryan asks him.

Bruce simply responds with, "It's gotta be done somehow, and besides, I can handle myself out there better than anybody else." After receiving a backpack, a map of the mall from Gordon, and another baseball bat to use as a weapon, Bruce was ready for his mission as Gordon has the big security gate lift up just enough for Bruce to roll under it.

"Okay. Head to Paradise Plaza. It's closer, and it has two food courts." Gordon says to Bruce, who nods as he follows the map's directions to Paradise Plaza, killing a couple of zombies along the way. Unbeknownst to him, he was being watched by a beautiful woman with tanned skin and black hair that went past her ears. She recognized Bruce; when he was saving the group from the zombies, she was among the people being attacked before Bruce saved her using his incredible strength, which she saw. Seeing him with such amazing strength was impressive enough, but what really sparked her curiosity was the fact that for a brief moment, his eyes glowed green.

The woman wanted to confront Bruce about this, but figured she'll wait for Bruce to come back and ask him about what she saw in private.

* * *

-**Paradise Plaza**-

After making it to Paradise Plaza, Bruce sighs in relief, noticing that there were less zombies roaming around, which would make it easier for him to get in and out with no problem. Thanks to the map he hit from Gordon, Bruce easily outmaneuvers what little amount of zombies there are in the area and enters a small restaurant called, "Jill's Sandwiches". Once inside, he gathers a few gallons of orange juice, some sodas, a few baguettes, and a bunch of apples, stuffing them into his backpack. Figuring he had enough, Bruce prepares to head back to the Entrance Plaza. As he exits Jill's Sandwiches, he catches a flash of light on the second floor of Paradise Plaza, and decides to investigate.

Once upstairs, Bruce spots a younger man with spiky reddish-brown hair, who is taking pictures of several zombies and laughing in a weird way. "Hey, mister!" Bruce calls out to the man, wondering to himself if this man was nuts for being out in the open in a zombie infested plaza.

Spotting Bruce, the man runs over to him. "Hi, mister! I'm Kent. I'm just here to get some good pictures." Kent says with a creepy, unsettling expression as he practically shoves his camera in the former gamma scientist's face. He then shows him some of the pictures he took prior to meeting Bruce, which mostly consisted of zombies devouring people, which disgusted Bruce, but what really set him off was a picture of a young girl getting her throat ripped out by a zombie. As Bruce steps away, Kent laughs. "Hahaha! This is my best shot. The girl's screaming and gurgling on her own blood made it all the better. This is the biggest scoop of my lifetime, and will be my big break in fame!"

"You're fricking crazy..." Bruce says as he turns around and begins to walk away, only to hear the faint click of a handgun.

"Where do you think you're going, pal? I need a fresh body for these zombies so I can capture all the gory details on camera." Bruce's eyes widen at his words. "Now...turn around, take off the backpack, and drop it on the ground." Bruce slowly turns around and takes off his backpack, only to toss it at Kent, catching him by surprise just long enough for Bruce to knock the gun out of Kent's hand. However, Kent laughs as he pushes Bruce back with a front kick, smirking to himself as he gets into a fighting pose. "Yeah! I like a challenge!" Kent says maniacally as he cracks his neck and knuckles.

The two fight, punching, kicking and in Bruce's case, swinging at each other. Despite having a weapon, Bruce is losing, almost as if Kent is energized by his own insanity. Having enough of Kent, Bruce channels some Hulk strength and grabs Kent by the throat, catching the maniac by surprise as Bruce tosses him through a window of a nearby shoe store, the loud sound of glass breaking attracting the attention of several zombies, who slowly lurch towards the two men. Kent tries to get up, but Bruce threw him so hard that it physically broke him, several pieces of glass stuck in his skin. Bruce grabs his backpack off the ground and walks away, leaving Kent to die as the zombies pile on him and devour him.

* * *

-**Security Room**-

Jessie and Brad are looking at various monitors, trying to find the rude old man that Bruce encountered when he first arrived at the mall, as they had lost him when the zombies broke in. So far, they haven't found a clue to give away the old man's whereabouts, so Brad decides to head out into the mall to find him, leaving Jessie behind to keep an eye on the security monitors. As Brad departs, Jessie surfs through the various monitors and spots a short clip of when Bruce was fighting Kent. As she watches the scene, she gasps, feeling worried for Bruce's wellbeing, only to receive a surprise when she sees Bruce toss Kent through the shoe store window one-handed. She continues to watch with great interest as Bruce heads to the Entrance Plaza with his backpack full of food and starts passing its contents to various survivors. She then zooms in a monitor's view of Bruce, focusing on his admittedly very handsome face.

"I wonder if there's more to Bruce than meets the eye..." Jessie wonders out loud to herself.


End file.
